New Zealand Permanent Force Old Comrades' Association

Newsletter No. 109 March 2001

ROUTINE ORDERS    |    FROM THE EDITOR     |     GUNNERS DAY 2001     |    WEBSITE

Routine Orders

Last Post

New Member

Newsletter Contributions

The newsletter belongs to you the members of the NZPFOCA. Although the committee use the newsletter to publish items like those above (subscriptions item omitted from web publication - webmaster), we also rely on news from members throughout New Zealand, Australia and wherever Old Comrades may reside. If you have an item about yourself, other members or a general interest item, please let me have it so that it can be published and passed on to the rest of our membership. We are especially interested in the health, good or bad, of members, we need to know when members reach the age of eighty so that they may be granted Life Membership. It is important for us to get news of a member's death as soon as possible so that we can quickly perform our requirements related to the unfortunate event.

East Timor

On behalf of the Association, Christmas and New Year best wishes were sent to all members of the RNZA (most of our Regular Force Gunners) serving in East Timor.

POW Reunion

Each year the verger of St Barnabas Anglican Church in Bathurst New South Wales organises a reunion for POWs, Padres, their relatives and their friends and civilian internees. This year the reunion is to be in August. The verger has issued an invitation to Old Comrades who would like to attend. The guest speaker this year is a soldier from the Australian 6th Division who was captured during the Battle of Crete along with many Kiwi soldiers. If you're interested, or know of someone who may be interested, please contact Verger Greg Standen at the church mentioned above. His email address is [email protected].

Deployment and Procedure for a Survey Troop R.A.

The following is a light-hearted look at what some of our older fellow gunners got up to during WWII. It was copied years ago from a NZ Surveyor Journal.
(Editorial note - Between spells of admiration at the remarkable feats of our fellow gunner friends many of us have wondered just what their daily routine was like, and how they managed, with such apparent ease to set the standards so far beyond all ordinary men. By a great stroke of fortune, a paper discovered in the Middle East has become available to us. It was, perhaps naturally, unintelligible to the finder, but we believe that it is undoubtably a secret document bearing upon the above. No gunner will admit any knowledge of it, having doubtless been sworn to silence, but experienced surveyors should understand parts of it without great difficulty.)

1. Deployment in Action:
   On arrival in the combat area the following action sequence will be observed:-
   1. All trucks will boil up.
   2. Contact will be made with Artillery HQ.
   3. Pack up and move somewhere else.
   4. Boil-up.
   5. Fresh contact made with Artillery HQ.
   6. Officers order about everybody else in Troop.
   7. Officers order Sergeants to order about everybody else.
   8. Officers order personnel to change trucks.
   9. Officers select working (?) parties by secret ballot.
   10. Working parties change trucks.
   11. Trucks check loads.
   12. Contact made with Regiments and work carried out as detailed in "Procedure".
   13. On return to Troop HQ results (if any) will be handed to the Calculating Bombardier, who will know what he can do with them.
   14. Working parties change trucks. Boil-up and Bed down.
   15. Truck loads to be: Chocolate, cigarettes or V's (a type of free issue cigarette), matches, food, thermettes, magazines, bed-rolls, prismatic compass etc.
2. Procedure in Action:-
   On arrival at the indicated area Sergeant will observe the following sequence:
   1. Order driver to boil-up.
   2. Look for Regimental Survey Officer (RSO) and Reconnaissance Party.
   3. Look again for RSO and Reconnaissance Party.
   4. Move to an area not indicated by Artillery HQ.
   5. Look for RSO and Reconnaissance Party.
   6. Find RSO.
   7. If the areas are under fire the survey sergeant will order gunners to set up in the area and start observing.
   8. Sergeant will remain by truck and start computing.
   9. Observer and Booker will return with observations and will start computing - Sergeant gives up computing.
   10. When some result is reached a BP Card is completed and handed to RSO.
   11. RSO will indicate a new point for the BP as the present one is invisible.
   12. Procedure (h)-(k) is repeated.
   13. RSO being satisfied and Sergeant satisfied nothing is right, he will order party to return to Troop, marking BP Card "Provisional".
   14. Repeat (a)-(n) the following day.

Matt Crawley is organising a Lunch at the Tauranga RSA on Saturday the 26th of May 2001, at 1100hrs for a 1200hrs lunch. Contact Matt at 2/159 16th Avenue, Tauranga or ring 07 577 0502. Tauranga RSA has three on-site Motel/Welfare units available at reasonable prices, first in first served, phone 07 578 9654.

Jeff Waters is once again organising the Northern Region Gunners Day dinner at the Papakura RSA. Gunners in the North can expect to hear from Jeff in April or early May.

Website

The web address is riv.co.nz/rnza/. Not a lot to report since November, nothing unusual has come through my email since then. The website continues to be popular with visitors from all over the world. I do have a couple of requests for assistance from members for upcoming articles. If you have info or old pamphlets on how to read artillery slide rules (including equipment specific ones) please contact me (ph 06 327 8831, write to CM Rivers, RD 3, Marton, or email [email protected]). Also, we need the names and years of appointment of NZ Master Gunners (SMIGS until 1980), particularly 1948-1954 and 1959-1977.

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